Online tutor expanded

A year ago, I reviewed Andrew Wilkins’ online tool The complete chemistry tutor for the AS course. Now, the final part of the website for teaching the second year of the A-level course has been launched. Is it as good as the first? I certainly think so.

The online tutor continues very nicely from the AS course and feels familiar to the user. It’s broken down into chapters that neatly match the specification. Each chapter contains simple, short and well put together videos accompanied by excellent pdf notes. In my previous review, I was worried about the stability of the website and speed of loading. This seems to have been improved massively and even when accessing the site on a mobile in a crowded cafe with poor wifi it worked well.

The end-of-chapter quizzes are comprehensive and simple to complete. Once results are submitted, the video segments relevant to each question can be rewatched easily to explain the answer. Some of my students wanted to review their answers along with corrections, however, which isn’t an option. It’s worth noting that while the notes, quizzes, tests and videos work extremely well on any device, reviewing an individual’s quiz question marks is only possible on a computer.

To finish off each section there are a raft of exam-style questions. Students take and mark each question themselves and they can ask for a clue before finding out the correct answer. Then, if needed, the relevant video is easily available again. It’s these simple and thoughtful shortcuts that make the whole resource so effective and user-friendly.

Previously, I suggested using this as an easy way of flipping your teaching. I still think this, but, The complete chemistry tutor would also be a superb replacement for a set of textbooks as it simply can’t get lost.

Producing a resource with all the relevant information and designing it so you can either dip in and out for revision or use it as a textbook is a real art. Andrew Wilkins has managed to do this spectacularly well and this is a resource I look forward to using and recommending for a long time.